Most of the expressway concrete pavements in Korea have been constructed with jointed plain concrete pavements. However, the premature failure of joints occurred on some routes and it is considered to be related to the durability of concrete. Korea Expressway Corporation has been continuously devoting efforts to increase the durability of concrete, and recent research has shown that premature failure of jointed plain concrete pavement constructed recently has decreased. The durability of pavement concrete is determined by internal and external factors. Currently, the durability of pavements concrete is controlled by controlling the quantity and the spacing factor of internal air. In this study, the feasibility of evaluating concrete durability through absorption performance tests was examined. The absorption performance was evaluated by applying ASTM C 1585 and modified NBN B 15-215 in Belgium and applied to the pavement concrete mixed in the laboratory or collected on site. Each test is a method to evaluate water absorption performance, but ASTM evaluates the absorption performance through the upper surface and NBN evaluates the absorption performance through the entire surface of specimens. In this study, the absorption performance of the pavement concrete measured according to the test method was compared and the advantages and disadvantages of the performance evaluation method were examined through comparison of test results and procedures. As a result of the absorption performance test on the cores collected at the site, the amount of water absorption in the region where the few premature failure was occurred was relatively small. Also, the specimen of lower water cement ratio absorbed the smaller amount of water. And the small amount of aggregate at the surface showed tendency of the large absorption of the water. The amount of absorption due to the increment of air content showed a moderate increment but it was relatively small. This study has confirmed the possibility of estimating the durability through the evaluation of the absorption performance of concrete. However, further study is needed to extend the results obtained from the test method to the evaluation criteria of pavement concrete.

• Jin Cheol Kim(Pavement Research Division, Research Institute of Korea Expressway Corporation)
• Seong Woo Ryu(Pavement Research Division, Research Institute of Korea Expressway Corporation)
• Tae Seok Yoo(Pavement Research Division, Research Institute of Korea Expressway Corporation)